On May 31, 2012, a federal grand jury returned a 46-count indictment charging
Sharanjit Kaur, 36, and Baljit Singh, 47, both of Fresno, California, with
conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, and international money laundering, United
States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced, following the defendants’ arrests
today in Fresno.
The indictment alleges that between July 2010 and June 2011, Kaur and Singh
owned and operated several companies
based in Fresno, California, for the sole purpose of defrauding hundreds of
customers throughout the United States. Kaur and Singh touted to potential
customers that their businesses, Consumer Financial Services, Consumer Credit
Repair, and Client Financial Services, could provide debt consolidation
services. They also falsely promised that they could renegotiate debts with
creditors and mortgage lenders, obtain low-interest loans for customers, assist
in avoiding lawsuits, lower car payments, replace high-interest credit cards
with low-interest ones, and correct errors in credit reports. Kaur and Singh
used a call center in India whose employees would call customers using aliases
such as “Neil McKenzie” or “Anthony Jones.”
The indictment alleges that after luring customers into using these purported
services, Kaur, Singh, and their agents instructed customers to send in monthly
payments of $500 or more. Even though they collected regular payments from
customers, the defendants did not contact creditors on behalf of customers. Nor
were customers informed that the defendants were not in fact providing the
promised debt renegotiation services. To mislead customers as to the status of
their debts, the defendants sent fake letters from creditors indicating that the
customers’ loan modifications had been approved. When customers would contact
the defendants’ companies about
late-payment or default notices they had received from their creditors, the
defendants and their agents would either hang up on customers or request that
customers continue to make service payments to the defendants. Customers sent
over $400,000 in payments to the defendants. According to the indictment, Kaur
and Singh used the funds received from customers for their own benefit. Kaur and
Singh also wired a portion of the funds to an individual in Kolkata, India.
U.S. Attorney Wagner said, “The work of our mortgage fraud task force is
increasingly geared towards prosecuting those whose victims are homeowners.
Fraudsters who prey on distressed homeowners and other indebted consumers will
be targeted for prosecution.”
This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the Federal Bureau
of Investigation and the Fresno Police Department. Assistant United States
Attorney Grant B. Rabenn is prosecuting the case.
Today’s announcement is part of efforts underway by President Obama’s
Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF). President Obama established the
interagency FFETF to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to
investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes
representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities,
inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together,
bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The
task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch
and, with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant
financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate
financial crimes, combat discrimination
in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of
financial crimes. One component of the
FFETF is the national Mortgage Fraud Working Group, which is tasked with combating mortgage fraud schemes. For more
information on the task force, visit www.stopfraud.gov.
The maximum statutory penalty for each charged offense is 20 years in federal
prison and a $500,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at
the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory
factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number
of variables.
The charges are only allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent
until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
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